


The Bucket List

by Amrywiol



Series: Scenes from an alternate second series [2]
Category: Community (TV)
Genre: Alternate Ending, Alternate Universe, M/M, Zombie Apocalypse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-07-22
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:26:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,784
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25441615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amrywiol/pseuds/Amrywiol
Summary: It's a zombie apocalypse and Jeff and Annie have got separated from the rest of the group.
Relationships: Annie Edison/Jeff Winger
Series: Scenes from an alternate second series [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1842724
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	The Bucket List

**Author's Note:**

> A while ago I had the idea of rewriting the whole of Series 2 in a more J/A friendly direction. That stalled after the first instalment which I reworked as a standalone ("It' didn't happen like that"), with the vague intention of coming back to it as the inspiration struck. We're now up to 2xe6 and not much has changed yet, Jeff & Annie are a little closer, Jeff and Britta not quite so close, Greendale still has an anus flag. It’s an alternate ending to “Epidemiology” and starts just after the Dean has locked everyone in the library.
> 
> As always, thanks to Jeffwik for awesome beta reading skills!

Jeff grunted with the effort as he heaved the heavy trunk into place to block the door - they’d been rushing for the Study Room with the rest of the survivors when a sudden surge of zombies had separated him and Annie from the rest, forcing them to seek safety in a store room.

“That should keep them out for a while,” he started saying as he turned around to face his friend. Annie’s face was pale and her shoulders had slumped slightly, as though terror had given way to exhaustion.

“What happens now, Jeff?” She sighed.

“We wait until rescue arrives,” he said simply. “And try to keep quiet so our ‘friends’-” he nodded at the door with a grimace on his face “-don’t hear us and try to break in.”

“The Dean said it would be six hours,” Annie said. “Do you really think we can hold out for that long?”

Jeff looked at her face. There was none of Annie’s usually positivity or determined optimism there.

“What choice do we have but to try, Annie?” He sighed. “We can’t go anywhere.” 

Annie was silent for a moment. Then she sat up straight, fixing her eyes on Jeff. _Her determined expression’s back,_ he suddenly found himself thinking.

“Do you know what a bucket list is Jeff?”

“It’s a movie starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman,” Jeff was momentarily sideswiped by the irrelevant question. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Annie rolled her eyes at him. “Not ‘The Bucket List’, a bucket list,” she repeated. “It’s a list of things you want to do before you die.”

Jeff looked slightly irritated at the strange direction their conversation had taken. “What does that have to do with the mess we’re in??” Jeff waved vaguely as though to draw attention to the faint moaning and crashing noises coming into the store room from outside.

“I don’t know about you, but I have one-”

“You’re only nineteen!” Jeff yelped in shock. _There's being prepared for anything and then there's -_

“ _Quiet_ Jeff!” Annie hissed, as the moaning outside suddenly got louder and something crashed against the door to the store room, rattling it slightly in its frame.

The two of them sat there staring at each other, afraid to move or even breathe for fear of drawing the attention of whatever shambling nightmare was outside the door. It felt like eternity, but was probably only a minute or so before whatever it was lost interest and the moaning receded into the distance.

Annie breathed a sigh of relief. She collected herself for a moment, and then her shaking hands reached up to unfasten the bow at her throat. “Well, it looks like I won’t be going to Disneyland now, or having a big, showpiece wedding -” she took off the red cloak and laid it flat on a bare patch of the dirty floor, then started attacking the fastenings of the brown apron that she was wearing underneath it.

Jeff watched in growing disbelief as the apron joined the cloak on the floor.

“And attending the Hollywood premiere of a Mark Ruffalo movie is right out,” she continued, reaching for the hem of her blue dress.

“Annie - what the heck are you doing??” Jeff gasped out as eye contact was temporarily broken as she pulled the dress over her head.

“But there is one thing I can do in the time we’ve got left,” Annie said, ignoring his question. “And it’s one you can help me with.” She drew in a deep breath as she gathered her courage, as though she was considering the possibility of failure in what she was about to do and firmly rejecting it. Jeff was suddenly intensely aware that all she was wearing now was a full length white slip with a flouncy skirt and low cut neckline over black hose. 

“I want to be made love to - “Annie stuttered slightly over the words “- at least once by a man who knows what he’s doing. And you’re the only one here.”

Jeff couldn’t believe how crazy things had suddenly gotten - _only a few minutes ago we were running for our lives!_

“Annie, you can’t be a- a-” Jeff couldn’t believe _this_ was his objection to the scenario unfolding in front of him. “You dated Vaughn for months!” He finally gasped out.

Annie actually stamped a foot in exasperation. Jeff’s attention was wholly seized by certain oscillating wave patterns this set up. He tried to think of a dancing monkey instead, it didn't work.

“Oh _please -_ “ she hissed. “One time we were making out and he broke it off because he’d thought of a song lyric! Another time we were just getting to second base when he broke it off because he thought he saw a cloud that looked like a bird! It _was_ a bird!!” Annie somehow managed to yell while whispering.

“I tried so hard to convince myself it was because he had a sensitive, beautiful soul and I just had to understand him better -” Annie started to close the gap with Jeff, he stood rooted to the spot. 

“But the reason I couldn’t see anything is because there was nothing to see! He was just dumb! If I was really getting everything I needed from him, why do you think I spent so much time trying to get you to notice me?” Annie finished softly, her eyes huge and her chest only inches from Jeff’s.

“Annie, we can’t-” Jeff tried to gasp out. He found himself quite unable to tear his attention away from the scene in front of him as something deep inside - the part of him that was aware that standing in front of him was a smart, beautiful woman who he cared about and who was clearly into him and who was asking him to help make what could be her last hours on earth about something other than pain and terror, the part of him that was aware that, apart from a couple of meaningless hook-ups in bars, he’d been dry since they’d kissed outside the Tranny Dance, the part of him that _REALLY, TRULY_ needed this - was yelling at him that _the world was literally ending_ and nothing mattered next to that! 

He looked at Annie again, it didn’t help. _It’s not fair - boobs AND Disney eyes!_

“Then why have you taken your jacket off?”

Jeff looked down in shock to where his hands - quite without conscious control - had already removed his jacket and were starting to unbutton his vest. "Erm, its hot??..."

All of a sudden, the noise outside quietened enough that the latest selection on the Dean’s soundtrack came through loud and clear.

_Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight_

_Won't somebody help me_

_Chase the shadows away?_

_Gimme, gimme, gimme a man after midnight_

_Take me through the darkness_

_To the break of the day…_

Annie grinned suddenly, as though fate had intervened on her behalf.

_There’s a Zombie apocalypse going on outside and our only hope of survival is the Dean._ “Oh, crap - “ Jeff gasped as he pulled her feverishly towards him, their lips crashing together in a passionate kiss.

_This is the way the world ends._

XXXXXX

Special Operations Officer McHenry was not a happy man. First he’d received a call in the middle of the night on a highly classified number, then he’d spent the next few hours calling out the Colorado Springs Biohazard Containment Team and briefing them on the outbreak at a no mark community college. 

His radio crackled into life.

_“Alpha team, north side secure.”_

_“Beta team, east side secure.”_

_Gamma team, west side secure.”_

“Delta team, south side secure,” McHenry finished the roll call. He sighed slightly in relief as the confirmations there had been no breaches came in.

“Entry on my mark, and remember - Scenario A. Tranqs first, lethal force if they don’t go down. When they stop moving, bring them out and put them on ice.” Officially, the virus was a fever delirium that needed to be broken by cold to prevent it spreading.

“Wow, six hours on the dot.” ‘Lady Gaga’ had walked up from where he’d been trying to talk to the troops.

“Yeah, well, practice makes perfect. You the only witness?”

“I am.” The little man nodded enthusiastically, as though seeking McHenry’s approval.

“All right,”

McHenry pulled a small bottle out of his pocket and sprayed the contents directly into the Dean’s face, nodding with approval as the last remaining security breach slumped into unconsciousness.

He did one last check of his tranquiliser gun and service pistol - _just in case -_ and nodded to the team members holding breaching rams and activated his radio.

“In three - two - one - Mark!” he called out. The breaching rams shattered the door.

XXXXXX

“To think all it took was the end of the world to get you to do this,” Annie was sitting up and wriggling herself back into her clothes while Jeff watched fondly. Her words were belied by the soft, warm smile on her face.

Jeff smiled back at her. “So, will you be ticking this off your bucket list?”

By way of answering, Annie wriggled her dress back into place and leaned over him to plant a soft, lazy kiss on his mouth.

“You’ll do.” She said as she pulled away, smiling again. “Are you going to-”

Whatever Annie was going to say was doomed to remain unsaid as the moaning from outside they’d long since got used to suddenly turned into a loud roaring as the walls began to shake and the door vibrate as something crashed into it.

“They’ve found us!” Jeff cried in horror as he pushed Annie off him. He looked around desperately, grabbing a fire extinguisher to use as a weapon. 

“You’ve got to hide!” he hissed at Annie, who was looking for a weapon of her own.

The door exploded inwards as the flimsy material came apart. Jeff screamed and wildly swung the fire extinguisher at the black clad figure struggling to climb over the chest still blocking the bottom part of the doorway. The figure went down, but there was another one behind it. It started to raise something that looked like a gun. 

The last thing Jeff heard before the world went black was Annie, screaming.

XXXXXX

“I can’t believe somebody would mass roofie an entire party,” Britta said.

“I can't believe it wasn't me,” Chang said.

I can't believe I-” Jeff shot to his feet and started looking around frantically.

“What is it Jeff?”

“I thought I heard Annie scream,” he said, relaxing as the petite brunette walked into the Study Room and waved in their direction. “I must have been imagining things.”


End file.
